Man City set to appeal ahead of deadline, hearing expected within 12 weeks

[p]The club has consistently denied wrongdoing, and indicated they ‌will challenge an independent commission's findings that they ‌used "sham" commercial contracts as part of schemes to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than £900 million ‌over nearly a decade.[/p][h2]'Irrefutable evidence'[/h2][p]City have said they ⁠have a body ‌of "irrefutable evidence"[b] [/b]that will clear the club's name, and are ​expected to argue that the government of Abu Dhabi - not the club's owners - partly ​funded the sponsorship deals.[/p][p][b]The Premier League's new fast-track rules state that an appeal hearing must be ⁠held within 12 weeks ​of an appeal being lodged, with a decision due within 30 days of the hearing concluding.[/b][/p][p]City, however, are expected to argue the rules were not ‌in place when they were originally charged in February 2023.[/p][p]The breadth of the fallout facing [b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/manchester-city/Wtn9Stg0/"]Manchester City[/a][/b] extends well beyond football sanctions.[/p][infobox id="56fa417b-668f-4479-b327-8fea98ffaefc" /][p]On Thursday, the chair of the Treasury Committee asked Britain's tax authority HMRC what action it was taking in response to the Premier League's findings.[/p][p]Meg Hillier said she had written to HMRC Permanent Secretary JP Marks following ‌the publication on Tuesday of the independent commission ​ruling that the club had committed [b]"well over 100 ‌individual breaches of the Premier League Rules across the course of many seasons."[/b][/p][p]Sports lawyers have predicted years of further litigation as rival clubs, players and agents assess whether they may have ⁠grounds to pursue ⁠compensation claims connected to ‌the case.[/p]